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I’m not sure if you’re keeping track or not, but this is the third variation I’ve shared in two weeks using the exact same recipe. Woohoo for easy versatility! Today we’re taking our Simple Make-Ahead Parmesan Meatball recipe and basically smashing the mixture into Simple Make-Ahead Parmesan Burgers. Are we smart or are we smart?

The idea came to me as I was working ahead to make a bunch of Parmesan Meatballs for the freezer. Either I got tired of scooping out meatballs, or I got a brilliant idea. It might have been both. After scooping out about 2 1/2 pounds of meatballs, I decided to abort my meatball endeavor. I took my remaining mixture and formed it into burger patties. I froze them, then we pulled them out to fry another day.

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Of all the recipes I share, this one is not the healthiest. Just whatever though, because corndogs taste amazing. (With a salad. And fruit. And digestive enzymes.) I’m providing a homemade option so that at least we’ll know these are better than store-bought.

First – try to find hotdogs that are nitrite free. Also, beef. Always beef hotdogs. Fine, turkey is okay too. Just try to avoid the hotdogs that are only pretending to be meat. I can’t even believe I’m still trying to convince myself that any form of a hotdog is healthy. But for real, at least try to find some that aren’t terrible. Why I like hotdogs is beyond me.

Now that we’ve covered the sacred topic of the hotdogs, allow me to share another compromise I make. This. We bought this fun corndog maker for one of our sons a few years ago as a gift because he is the ultimate corndog lover. (I have no idea where he gets this.) I think having dozens of appliances that only do one task each is fairly ridiculous. But shucks if having a corndog maker isn’t a lot of fun, so there. We’ve used it for more than just corndogs (like muffins and cookies – who knew?!) so hallelujah for an appliance that is actually multi-functional.

I will tell you that this machine makes the effort of creating homemade corndogs so easy and mess free that a few days ago, I made 48 corndogs in less than an hour – while I was making tomato sauce, French toast, and frozen yogurt. The corndog maker allows me to multitask while making food for my freezer. And here you thought that appliance was pointless.

Anyway….

The long and short of making homemade corndogs is that you simply use your favorite cornbread recipe, add a bit of extra milk so the batter will coat the dogs, then you either fry them in oil or bake them in the above mentioned corndog maker.

What about sticks?

Life is too short to poke sticks into hotdogs. Do the stick poking if you must, but as for me and my house, we will skip the sticks and just eat the dogs.

** I cut my hotdogs in half, then cook my corndogs in this fun Corndog Maker. It saves a lot of time and mess!

If you make these to freeze, all you have to do at mealtime is pull them out and warm them up while you’re getting out all the actual nutritious parts of the meal (fruits, veggies, and more veggies with a side of another vegetable).

‘Fess up. Do ya like hotdogs?

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Of all the dishes that must be included in a holiday meal, stuffing is the one I always try to avoid making if possible. If I’m hosting the meal, when people ask what they can bring, I almost always ask them to bring the stuffing so I don’t have to make it. (Nice, huh?)

Why had stuffing always been such a hard one for me? I just hadn’t found a stuffing recipe I love. I look at stuffing recipes and get completely overwhelmed. After all, there are usually no fewer than 28 steps to take to go from bread to stuffing.

Until now.

Oh look. We made toasted bread.
It wasn’t even hard.

Homemade Stuffing Made Easy

Once I finally wrapped my brain around all the instructions in all the recipes I looked at, I realized that I didn’t need to perform 28 steps. I could simplify everything and cut it down to four:

1. Cube and toast bread.
2. Brown sausage with onion and sage.
3. Stir everything together with a few other ingredients.
4. Bake.

What? That’s it? Yes.

Some may prefer their stuffing with additional spices. Many like celery. But this turned out plenty flavorful for us with very few ingredients. Plus, not one of the six of us likes celery. So I skipped it.

This recipe can be made ahead of time. You can make this stuffing spread into a dish or as scooped into muffin tins. I may actually make this more than twice a year for holiday meals. After all, when I was was testing driving this recipe to make it as easy as possible, my family dug in and kept going back for more. Even if I did burn the first batch.

Indeed, my pictures feature over-baked Stuffing Muffins. It’s because I was baking them while having unfortunate cat drama. It was day 2 of baby kitties and Wiggams wasn’t sure she was cut out for the mama business. (WHAT?!) I told her she didn’t have a choice, that sometimes we all have hard days, and that she needed to get over it at go try to keep her last baby alive (yes, we’re down to only one). She ignored me. So I was trying to keep the last kitten alive by holding it to warm it up and by giving it milk from a dropper. This is when my muffins burned. I am not cut out to be the mother of a kitten.

Other bloggers would have started over in an effort to take better pictures. Me? I just took pictures of my burned muffins. There just are not enough hours in the day, okay? I get overwhelmed easily. It was either burned pictures or no pictures. At least we saved the kitten.

Recipe links you might find helpful:

To Freeze Stuffing Muffins

Allow muffins to cool completely. Place them in a freezer bag and seal, air tight. Freeze for up to one month.

To reheat: Thaw and warm muffins in a 250° oven in a covered dish for 10-15 minutes.

You should know that saying Stuffing Muffins most often comes out of my mouth as Muffing Stuffers or Stuffern Muffings. It can’t be helped.

And now for some adorable cat pictures. I mean, if I’m going to show you burned muffins, I should at least show you the reasons they burned:

With assistance from our neighbor, some much needed help from a friend, and now some persistent work with Wiggams, I think we’ll be able to keep one little kitten alive. Wiggams seems to be getting the mama thing figured out, finally. If this isn’t the sweetest…

Look at this little one’s face. See why we named it Lionel? (I mean, besides the fact that we named it after Lionel Messi. He just looks like a Lionel.) Look at his little lion cub face. We are in love.

And that is why my muffins burned.

Holiday Make-Ahead Tip:

If you are in charge of stuffing for this year’s holiday festivities, I suggest you make these Stuffing Muffins at least two weeks in advance. Freeze them until the night before your meal. Thaw in the fridge. Rewarm just before serving. These are great drenched in turkey gravy (recipe coming up during this series).

Here are the quick links to all the recipes we covered in this series:

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It’s a Potato and Bacon Casserole. Life is good.

This is so easy we can hardly call it a recipe. I’m pretty sure my family will be having this every other week for the rest of our lives for the following reasons:

Bacon. Of course. And also, cheese.

We can slather it with Spicy Ranch Dressing, which tastes so good I believe I shall become addicted to it.

I can make several of these casseroles at once and freeze them for later, making this easy meal even easier.

This “casserole” is basically baked potatoes cut up in a dish with bacon and cheese all over it. I’m sorry that I can’t make it more complicated for all of you who would rather spend many more minutes sauteing, braising, and broiling. This time, you’ll have to get your steeping and zesting fix elsewhere.

Everyone else: I lovingly suggest that you go scrub some potatoes. You’re having this for dinner tonight.

Scrub and bake potatoes by putting them into a covered dish in a 350° oven for 1½ hours.

In the meantime, cut bacon into bite-sized pieces and cook thoroughly on the stove-top.

Cut baked potatoes into chunks, spreading them out into a 9x13" baking dish.

Sprinkle cooked bacon over the potatoes.

Top with shredded cheese.

Bake in a 350° oven for about 10 minutes or until the cheese has melted.

3.4.3177

Offer sour cream, chives, and/or Spicy Ranch Dressing to complete this main course. Serve with a salad and another fruit or veggie. It is too easy. Makes 6-8 servings.

To Freeze This Dish:

Make it as directed above. Allow it to cool completely. Cover and label. Put it in the freezer.

To Reheat and Serve This Dish:

This is my favorite trick. Get the casserole out of the freezer. Cover the frozen dish with foil (somebody needs to invent a 9×13 glass cover for my pyrex dishes). Put the frozen casserole into a COLD oven. Turn the oven on to 250° allowing it to heat up along with the casserole. After one hour, turn the oven up to 350° and bake for one more hour or until the casserole is thawed, heated through, and looks like wonderful cheesy deliciousness.

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Pancake Muffins? Seriously?! Why did I not think of this before?

I think I heard this idea from one of you brilliant minds a few dozen weeks or possibly even years ago. If it was you, thank you. My apologies for taking so long to try it. It’s just that...change is hard, you know? I’m so used to pouring pancake batter on a griddle, so scooping it into a muffin cup was just such a hard, hard adjustment for me.

Not really. I just never got around to trying it. Sheesh.

The thing about the traditional pancake is how long one has to stand at the griddle flipping the cakes. Yum, and all that. But it is time consuming if you must move make mountains of pancakes to fill up your people. With the muffin idea, you can scoop the very same pancake batter into muffin cups, slide them into the oven, and be on your way. And {please hold your applause} you can make extras of these and put them into your freezer, then pull them out and rewarm them without even having to think or stir or dirty up a bowl.

I may never stand at a griddle again. {standing ovation}

I no longer know how to cook in small quantities, as is evidenced by the following large-sized ingredient list. Forgive me, cut the recipe in half, or simply put your leftovers in a freezer bag and then into the freezer for a no-brainer breakfast of the future.

If you want to make these a “to-go” muffin, simply add about 1/4 cup of real maple syrup to the batter before scooping and baking. Then you can skip the necessary “dip them in syrup while holding your chin over the table” step.

Ever tried this idea? Were you the one who told me about it? Love you.

Making oatmeal has got to be the most difficult thing to do ever. It’s definitely the most tedious breakfast food there is – requiring time, energy, thought, and absolute sweat-dripping labor over a stove for five entire minutes (because oatmeal won’t cook properly unless someone is staring at it in expectation). Life is hard. We should probably settle for pop-tarts. It’s the only way.

Don’t worry, friends. I’ve found a way to avoid performing this grueling task (and eating pop-tarts) in the mornings – and I’m here to share. I think we can all agree that the more we can avoid the challenge of putting water in a pot to boil, the better. Gather ’round, everyone. This tip will shave at least 1.4 minutes off your morning meal prep, so listen closely. Every 1.4 minutes counts.

Here’s what you need to do: You need to cook up a double or triple batch of oatmeal (you can do it, we’re all in this together, persevere, I believe in you). Once the oatmeal is done, go ahead and feed some to your family. Here’s where it gets good: After your meal, freeze the leftovers in muffin cups, topped with whatever delicious toppings your family likes. Like this:

The result is easy-to-store cups of frozen oatmeal which are ready to pull out and re-heat at any given time – preferably on those mornings. You know the ones I’m talking about.

But seriously, in all seriousness, because I am always serious – this really is a lovely way to help your children help themselves on a busy morning, and it really does save a tiny bit of time because the cooking of the oatmeal has already been done.

Now, if you get a little bit burned out on oatmeal and you’re still struggling with the urge to buy a pre-made breakfast in a box that promises to save you time – I suggest you consider the possibility of frying an egg. If I can do it, you can do it. There are also apples – a brand new innovative idea for breakfast that I’ve heard are great to grab-and-go. Who knew?

The Specifics of Making Approximately 24 Frozen Oatmeal Cups

Boil 6 cups of water.

Stir in 3 cups of whole oats.

Turn the heat down to simmer the oats/water for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Remove from heat once the water has been absorbed and the oats are soft.

Stir in 1-3 Tablespoons of butter and 1-4 Tablespoons of sweetener like honey or sucanat as desired.

Scoop prepared oatmeal into muffin tins (no need to grease the tins).

Top oatmeal cups with any variety of fruit, nuts, chocolate chips, etc.

Place filled muffin pans in the freezer for 2-3 hours or until oatmeal is frozen solid.

Pull frozen oatmeal out of the freezer and allow it to sit on the counter-top for about 10 minutes.

Use a fork or spoon to gently pop the frozen oatmeal cups out of the tins.

Place the frozen cups into a labeled freezer bag. Store in the freezer for up to three months.

Re-heat by placing frozen oatmeal cup(s) in a small saucepan on medium heat until thawed and warm.

I love this idea (for so many reasons, as explained earlier) – but also because this allows for a variety of sizes of appetites. Little ones may just need one cup to fill them, whereas my sons would likely each pull out 2-4 to rewarm.

So now, go therefore and make yourself some frozen oatmeal cups. Your breakfast – and really, your entire life – is obviously going to be changed for the better because of this tip. Enjoy your extra 1.4 minutes of morning time. You are very, very welcome.

What do you think of this idea? I like the brainlessness of it. I like that the cooking is done so all that needs to be done is rewarm and serve. I love that my kids can do this themselves. Not every freezer meal is about saving time – sometimes it’s just about the comfort of having prepped food on hand for ease!

Today is going to be just as easy as yesterday when it comes to prepping a meal for tonight’s dinner along with putting a meal (or two) into the freezer for another time. All you need to do is throw chicken into the crock pot, cover with bbq sauce, and let the crock pot do your work for you. Once your chicken is done, use a portion as part of tonight’s dinner. Allow the rest to cool, then put into a jar or freezer bag. Place it in the freezer (clearly labeled) for a day you don’t have time to cook.

As you can see, I chose to serve our Bbq Chicken on buns with cheese melted on top. We had a busy evening with soccer practices, so setting these out on the table with fresh pineapple, carrots, and cucumbers made a quick meal for us to grab on the fly. The rest of the chicken is now in the freezer, waiting for another day when I can pull it out to use.